Seems I-405 between LAX & John Wayne is becomming the hottest spot lately to see cars & SUVs that aren't out yet (Saw a Navigator earlier this week w/Michagan MFG plates that on the surface looked normal but had tape at various places on it). I was heading back to San Diego from Long Beach today, and there was this car that had no brand name anywhere on it, but had Equuis & V8 450 in chrome on the trunk & mfg plates seemingly taped on.

It was a black sedan, roughly the size of a LS or CTS & seemed to be RWD. It has a hood ornament (!) of something with wings, had 4 very large headrests, and was not very modern in design. It seemed like something Lexus would have made 8 years ago. I got a glimpse of the front (lot of traffic) that had a pretty ugly chrome grille. I took a couple of pictures, but I didn't go crazy over it because it's styling wasn't earth shattering, and it was completely undisguised.

Anyone know what this was or who's bringing it out?

 

It's a Hyundai. Atleast that's what i got from searching under google.

Did it look like this?
http://thehollywoodextra.com/hyundai/hyundai.html

The name is "EQUUS" and it has a 4.5L v8.

 

yep, he beat me to it.

it is a hyundai, a new luxo hyundai. Isnt that an oxymoron?

 

This luxo barge is a Hyundai, but the design is almost entirely Mitsubishi. In the Japanese homemarket this car is known as the Mitsubishi Grandeur, a car that is even more "conservative" than the Lexus LS430/Toyota Celsior. The only cars that it competes with are the Toyota Century (V12, crome bumpers), and the Nissan President (stretched, first generation Q45).

I've heard that Hyundai is looking to go upmarket, but I doubt that this particular car will make it to the U.S. market. (Nissan tested a the Y32 Cima stateside before they brought out a updated version as the 1997 Q45.) My guess is that we'll see the next generation version of the Equuis.

 

That's the car alright (I was behind it for about 15 minutes), but this one had a much different chrome grille & a big chrome hood ornament.

Hyundai has their US HQ off 405 near Long Beach, but I don't see why they would be driving the car around here if it wasn't being evaluated for sale here. It's pretty late & pretty cool out here to be still doing hot weather testing.

 

I wouldn't put anything past Hyundai. Who would have thought that any automotive company would have brought out a car as 1980s "retro" as the swanky XG350? The 2001 Hyundai LZ450 was just a Korean homemarket Equuis with big rims. Is this car going to be a 2004 introduction in the U.S.?

On a conceptual level this car is pretty much the equivilent to a front wheel drive Caddy - with even less style and zero cache for the marque. I would say that we can expect a car with similar mechanicals, but more radical bodywork like the HCD-7.

http://www.hyundaiusa.com/about/ahcon.html

Personally, I don't make too much of non-US production cars around a foriegn carmaker's headquarters. Around the time of the failed Renault-Volvo merger in the mid-1990s, a Renault Twingo was spotted at Volvo's North American HQ. Did Volvo plan on bringing Renault back to the U.S.? Probably it was just a corporate wonk who wanted to drive something "different." In the case of the Equuis, it might just be a homesick executive. There again....

 

There were 2 people inside, and it looked like one was explaining something to the other regarding the car.

The car looked very luxurous inside (those sure were some big headrests), and if the car came out here in the early 90s at the latest, it's styling wouldn't seem so bad. I took another look at thehollywoodextra at the picture again. Although the car I saw had a totally different grille & headlights (the updated version you mentioned??), I can't stress this enough though, this car looks far better in pictures than it does in person!

Then again, if it's only $30K, there is a whole lot of value driven people without an once of good taste who will ****** up as many of these things as Hyundai can make.

 

I think your analysis is right on. This car really looks like a bloated version of a 1987 Mazda 929. Personally, I think an $8,500 Accent isn't a bad proposition - for some people, if not for me - but a 30k Hyundai is really pushing it. Hopefully, Hyundai will get the quality right on this landyacht. It will always be boring, but at least it shouldn't be bad.

 

I believe Equus is latin for horse.